Natasha Ngan

I received a free ebook copy of Girls of Paper and Fire from NetGalley in exchange for feedback and an honest review.

Natasha Ngan weaves a gorgeous, heart-wrenching queer fantasy in Girls of Paper and Fire. I fell in love not only with the protagonist Lei and her cohort, but with her sensual, many colored world and its many mysteries. This is a dark, difficult read which also radiates light. Themes of sexual abuse thread throughout the novel, forming a core of the narrative, which readers show more should absolutely be aware of. However, if you are able to read this, I absolutely recommend it. The writing sparkles intoxicatingly, and the unexpected queer love story made my heart grow several sizes. I have never read a book quite like this one. show less

Where do I begin?

I appreciate that the theme of overcoming sexual assault is important to the author and many readers. I was looking forward to the theme of calling out systematic misogynistic attitudes. However, the message is buried in this poorly written book.

The characters are flat as sheets. There is nothing about how the king performs as a ruler. He's just presented as a spoiled, disgusting child, and I have no idea how he's capable of running anything. His statement that he killed his show more brothers to become king was just oddly glossed over like it was nothing. The demon characters just happen to unimaginatively share physical characteristics of animals that match their "goodness" or "badness," like a guard who tries to rape Lei is, naturally, a snake form, while the 11-year-old bubbly servant is a doe form. Lei is such a flat protagonist, "special" because she has literal golden eyes that make her beautiful, and she even has the awkward/clumsy trait to boot.

The worldbuilding is frustratingly unconvincing. Seriously, 8 girls are basically raped every year and society says "They're honored!"? And if they're considered honored, why are there paper cast who consider them traitors (as if they have a choice)? The girls are considered alternately volunteers or victims depending on which attitude generates the most tension for the scene. And if the selection of paper girls are supposed to show the king's respect or honor or whatever for the paper cast, why the hell do the raids exist, the complete disregard for life, the enslavement of kidnapped paper cast?

I got so mad when a character teaching Lei about sex said physical evidence of sexual arousal is your body's "betrayal" that you're feeling attraction. Physical arousal does NOT always indicate attraction or consent!!! and I'm shocked the author would write that, let alone not call it out.

The story relied so much on telling vs showing, so much exposition to explain things (which often didn't make sense or agree with previous worldbuilding) as new things happened. It completely stopped up the flow of the story.

I don't understand why this book is so popular. show less

See the full review and more at baileysbooks.home.blog!

Decently entertaining, though mostly predictable and at times not that driving in action. I'll probably pick up the second one, but not in a huge hurry. Oddly enough, the notes and acknowledgements at the back are what changed my mind on that.

Recommended: for a spare-time casual read
For a decently entertaining story, for a read that you can read between other more enticing books (you won't mind putting this one down for a bit)

Thoughts:
I show more had high hopes for the world here, with the caste system on a range of human to demon, but I felt like it didn't come into much detail besides the general plot point of the unfair system. I love the dedicated lore and explanation behind interesting world features like this, but I wanted more here. The plot itself was solidly meh for me, as it felt like not much actually happened. When things did happen, I was invested in seeing how they would play out, but it was also largely predictable so the motivation through suspense was missing.

I loved the analogies of the writing, the descriptions, the most. Every now and then, there was a gem of a line that I stopped to re-read and savor a few times. I can't always pin why they hit me so strongly, but some I just completely loved.

Two examples:
"After dinner, Lill picks a vivid orange cheongsam for me to wear to the performance, gold embroidery shimmering across the fabric. She adds a slash of vermilion paint on my lips. Then she slicks my hair back into an intricate braid, twining it with flame-colored ribbons. “Now you match the leaves,” she grins, moving back to admire her work."

"In front of me, Chenna’s thick hair falls down in its usual braid, though tonight it has been threaded with tiny silver flowers that make it look as if she’d been dancing between the galaxies, catching stars."

I'll probably pick up the second book, eventually. When I finished, I originally wasn't planning to, but after reading the notes and acknowledgements at the back, I had changed my mind. The passion that went into the story and world was enough to tip the scale for me, so authors: don't underestimate the power of what you write in those sections! At least one person reads them! show less

CW: animal death, rape/attempted rape, graphic violence

I was so excited to read this book before its release but put it on the back burner when I read some mixed reviews and also realized the kind of content. But I’m so glad my Stars and Sorcery book club decided to choose this book as our January BOTM and it has been a great experience reading and discussing this very important book.

This is the author’s debut but nowhere does the writing feel like that. The descriptions of the places show more that the MC travels are so vivid and especially the Hidden Palace is described so beautifully that I was surprised even I enjoyed it. If you know me at all, you are already aware that I’m actually not a fan of very descriptive stuff and tend to skim read, but the author made me like her style of writing and imagine all the places she was talking about. The story starts off a bit slow and the pacing can feel a little off initially, but it picks up once Lei reaches the palace and the training for the Paper Girls begins. We also get a unique blend of Asian mythologies, some I knew about and some unknown, but it was still very interesting to read about. This makes for some fascinating world building and I liked getting to know the various places within this world, the hierarchies and their history. I have a feeling we’ll get a chance to explore much more in the next book.

The themes of caste division, prejudice towards and oppression of the lower castes by the upper castes and the extreme violence towards women are the major undercurrent throughout the story and I felt that the author handled them all with a lot of sensitivity. As all the Paper Girls are essentially playthings for the Demon King to use whenever he wants, we see first hand the affects of rape and sexual abuse on these girls. The author deftly tells us through the story that not everyone reacts or processes their trauma the same way, each one’s PTSD manifests in a different way and every survivor has their own path to recovery. This is a story of the strength and resilience that these young girls show and how they try to take back at least some choices for themselves, step by single step.

Lei, our protagonist is very angry initially for being forcefully taken from her home and blackmailed to become a paper girl. This is where the story faltered for me a bit, but once she meets the other girls and the group dynamics are developed more, the plot became very interesting. Lei’s experience is horrific and and she struggles with her trauma, but she also finds strength in herself, in her love for her family and in her determination to never let it happen to her again. Wren is a badass love interest and I would have loved to read her POV (I hope we get it in the next book). Her relationship with Lei is a delicious slow burn and I enjoyed every moment of it. It’s also a very empowering one for the two girls because they choose to be with each other, they take control of their bodies and desires after having been violated multiple times and they find strength in each other. Aoki is another character whom I just wanted to give a big hug to, because she is naive and very sympathetic or maybe just that she is handling her trauma in the only way she knows how to - by embracing it as her choice. Blue is supposed to be the mean girl of the group but even she has her own story and reasons for being there and we can’t really hate for trying to survive. We also have Chenna, Mariko, Zhin and Zhen - each of them have their own stories and I liked every one of them. When there is such a wonderful group of girls, we naturally get a good dose of friendship, jealousy, drama and betrayal but what stood out for me was that in times of need, they all helped each other - even if it was just in subtle ways.

This is a book where the story builds up slowly, character development is given major importance and everything leads up to a very action packed climax. The content can be difficult to read, so be mindful of it if you decide to pick up this book. However, I think this is a very important YA book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a reader of YA fantasy. show less